Season Ended against ISU. OSU game was Inevitable.

[ShonnDeereGreene]

And to be clear, Iowa is going to have some real tough sledding the next couple years. Making the playoff with the upcoming schedules and turnover is unrealistic. Only hope is Lester can drag this offense back to respectability.

This is correct and another reason why not realizing full potential really hurts this year.

Making the playoff (or at least being in the convo for the entire year) brings an immense amount of national attention and relevance that could have helped put us on a sustainable trajectory here at the end of KFs tenure. It may have even brought in some valuable transfers for next year and helped to avoid a huge drop off as we lose a TON of talent.

Win against ISU and we are in the playoff conversation for a good part of this year even with the loss at OSU (even with it being one sided). Lose to ISU and we are massively underachieving this season and missing out bigtime on what could have been.

I was at the Wisconsin game in 2008 where a 5-4 Hawkeye team led by Shawn Greene exploded and rattled off a tremendous winning streak that propelled into the next year. So I guess a similar trajectory is possible yet this year - just unlikely.

All that said, some of KFs best work over the years has been bringing the team back from the brink…. Will be interesting if he can do it this year too.

Edit: I’ll also be at the Washington game next week to hopefully witness the start of a massive turnaround and win streak again!

 

[BirdistheWord]

When he called for the fake punt, Kirk seemingly pushed his entire meager stack into the "Pass Line"....but of course, a half-second before the shooter was handed the dice, he sheepishly grabbed it all back, cashed out, and ran off to take Mary to see Wayne Newton: Up Close and Personal at the Flamingo.

Kirk “Surrender” Ferentz

 

[IChawkeye45]

This is correct and another reason why not realizing full potential really hurts this year.

Making the playoff (or at least being in the convo for the entire year) brings an immense amount of national attention and relevance that could have helped put us on a sustainable trajectory here at the end of KFs tenure. It may have even brought in some valuable transfers for next year and helped to avoid a huge drop off as we lose a TON of talent.

Win against ISU and we are in the playoff conversation for a good part of this year even with the loss at OSU (even with it being one sided). Lose to ISU and we are massively underachieving this season and missing out bigtime on what could have been.

I was at the Wisconsin game in 2008 where a 5-4 Hawkeye team led by Shawn Greene exploded and rattled off a tremendous winning streak that propelled into the next year. So I guess a similar trajectory is possible yet this year - just unlikely.

All that said, some of KFs best work over the years has been bringing the team back from the brink…. Will be interesting if he can do it this year too.

Edit: I’ll also be at the Washington game next week to hopefully witness the start of a massive turnaround and win streak again!

With the drop off in the defense this year and a lot of guys graduating before 2025, I honestly think going 6 and 6 next fall would be a huge achievement. Iowa plays:
@ISU
Indiana
Oregon
Penn State
@Wisconsin
@Rutgers
@USC
@Nebraska
Even this years team would be an underdog in every single one of those games except maybe Indiana at home. That’s a 5 and 7 season staring right at you.

 

[blubberhawk]

“Playoff or nothing valuable left” is a loser mentality.

that's the college football (semi pro) world we live in. Playoffs or bust. The non-playoff related bowl games will be gone soon. Hell, college football was more exciting when pollsters decided a champion. All the big bowl games on New Years day and all of them meant something.

 

[blubberhawk]

With the drop off in the defense this year and a lot of guys graduating before 2025, I honestly think going 6 and 6 next fall would be a huge achievement. Iowa plays:
@ISU
Indiana
Oregon
Penn State
@Wisconsin
@Rutgers
@USC
@Nebraska
Even this years team would be an underdog in every single one of those games except maybe Indiana at home. That’s a 5 and 7 season staring right at you.

Iowa always wins at ISU. 6 in a row.

 

[IChawkeye45]

Iowa always wins at ISU. 6 in a row.

Seems like Iowa State always wins in Kinnick now. Either way Iowa would definitely be an underdog in Ames.

 

[markfromj]

that's the college football (semi pro) world we live in.

Only if you choose to.

You can choose instead to continue to watch and pull for wins, even if you’re out of the playoff picture.

 

[onlyTheObvious]

With the playoff going to 12 teams it’s going to be interesting how much fan and media interest there is for all the non playoff bowl games.

The playoff system will be 11 games to focus on. Frankly that’s all I will pay attention to. The rest of the games will be a joke and with more players not suiting up. They will be over glorified spring games.

 

[NI hawk]

Seems like Iowa State always wins in Kinnick now. Either way Iowa would definitely be an underdog in Ames.

Unfortunately Hawks have lost 4 of last 6 in Kinnick to Clones. And 3 of those losses were to bad ISU teams. This year remains to be seen,.

 

[Hawk-A-Doodle-Doo]

Only if you choose to.

You can choose instead to continue to watch and pull for wins, even if you’re out of the playoff picture.

It was a lot easier to take the "just enjoy watching for the love of the game/team even if no championship is at stake" approach when only 2...and then 4...teams were in contention.

At 12, the stick has been shortened significantly. So, the persistent unattainability of the carrot becomes all that much more disappointing and frustrating.